Welcome to the ChappyShowcase BlogSpot

Please enjoy an eclectic diversity of content and subjects created by Matt Chapman. This blog page gives more in depth detail and cool anecdotes pertaining to each video, film, or perhaps something else completely. On top of that, you will find info about the online video making paradigm, production, post-production and more. ChappyShowcase has content channels all over the web. All links for each channel are located for your convenience at a click of the button. Be sure to check the blog regularly to be updated on what is happening with Growing Up Guide Pup, ChappyShowcase, and GurillaTV. Or, better yet, subscribe to one of the RSS feeds so every new post is automatically emailed to you. Enjoy...and remember, keep that camera rollin!

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Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Mckenna Faith - Sugar and Spice

This video marks the second of a series of videos that I shot with Mckenna Faith. She is a up and coming artist, and really talented. I'm happy that our families have become friends, and working together was awesome. This particular song is my favorite, and I'm really excited to have it in the line up "guerilla unplugged" style of videos I did with Mckenna. If you like this, there are two more coming. One other already done called "He Doesn't Even Know it Yet".

If i told people that I pushed aside my regular gear and opted for low budget alternatives, they may say "you are crazy". But that is exactly what i did. Mckenna and her mom were very gracious with my experiments and they ended up working really good. A majority of this video was shot on the Flip Cam Ultra HD which only costs a few hundred dollars. Of course I used many of them, and also had a myriad of other equipment as well as some other professional cameras in the final cut, but never-the-less, the flip cam image is dominant. I also left my professional lighting equipment in their bags, and performed all the lighting for this video using work lights I got at Home Depot for $60. See the results for yourself.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Growing Up Guide Pup - Week 55 - Farm Animals

This week was cool because we were able to review all of Ricki's main issues. Her small animal distractions, bird distractions, ball distractions, and dog distractions. We are constantly exposing Ricki to the things that could cause her to fail puppy college. It is the only thing we can do before her formal training. Will it be enough for her to graduate? Only time will tell and everyone will have to continue to tune it and find out.


Thursday, March 17, 2011

Low Budget Film Lighting

I few of my producer friends over the last six months have been asking me if I could come up with a way to do lighting on a low budget. My answer was to go to home depot and buy some work lights. This was a test and I didn't know what the results were going to be until after the edit. Well after it is all said and done my thoughts are i'm going to keep them in my filmmaking bag of tricks. They really do work. All one has to do is get a little more creative in figuring out a way to mount them. Also keep in mind that the 500 watt lights get pretty hot. One of my fans sent me a message that the 1,000 watt lights even have a fire warning on them with most manufactures. So I would really be careful with all of these lights. Keep a fire extinguisher close by and treat this process with respect. So anyway, have fun and here is my latest episode.



Here is my guerilla unplugged video showing the lights in action.
The artist is Mckenna Faith
Song is "He Doesn't Even Know It Yet"

Monday, March 14, 2011

Growing Up Guide Pup - Week 54 - Nylabone

This week marks an important step for us. It's the first time a company has worked with us in any form. Nylabone donated toys for our puppy raising group, as well as donated a bunch of items for a youtube contest. This might not seem like that big of a deal, but for us it is. We feel like the only way we will be able to sustain what we are doing in a long term vision, is to find a way to help make a living with the series. Making a living might mean picking up a sponsor who can burden the bills of creation. We have taken on the burden so far on our own, and will continue as long as possible. But this was a really cool step in the right direction for us.

Nylabone will always rock in our book, and we have nothing but great things to say about them.

If you are interested in winning our giveaway package. Thumb up, comment, and favorite this episode on youtube. Make sure you subscribe if you have not already.

Chappy

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Flip Cam Ultra HD Test Bench

Ok, so this is the first time I have talked about a camera. As I explore low budget filmmaking ideas I find myself going beyond just building things. There is so much out there to explore. The reason I chose this camera is because I acquired seven of them from a tv pilot shoot. It also is the camera that I am giving away in my contest, so it really only makes sense.

I wanted to do a review in a interesting way. Not just simply shoot some lame random footage and talk about it. This is what other people do. No, i shot a series of music videos giving valuable video real estate to the Flip Cam. This was a real project with real people. This provides a real world example without hypotheticals. I mean what is the point, unless the camera is really used to see results? C'mon people:D

So all in all this camera is pretty good if you know the rules and stay within them. Some of the rules that I have found to keep in mind.

1) Don't shoot handheld
This camera sucks when shooting handheld. It is very sensitive to movement and can look very shaky.

2) Keep it locked down and the results will be much better.
This camera has a camera mount thread on the bottom. The universal 1/4" 20 pitch that is found on most tripods, and various mounting adaptations. Utilize this fact and this camera gives amazing options because of it's size.

3) Surround the Fiip Cam with good lighting or suffer the consequences.
The exposure is all automatic so you will find yourself at the mercy of the Flip gods. It will expose itself very well most of the time if the lighting is consistent and bright. This will make the HD resolution shine.

So hope these tips help. Check out my video below to get more information. If you like my videos, do me a favor and subscribe on youtube. Thanks

Mckenna Faith - He Doesn't Even Know it Yet

This video marks the first of a series of videos that I shot with Mckenna Faith. She is a up and coming artist, and really talented. I'm happy that our families have become friends, and working together was awesome. This particular song is one of my favorites, and I'm really excited to have it kick off the premiere of my "guerilla unplugged" style of videos I did with Mckenna. If you like this, there are three more coming.

If i told people that I pushed aside my regular gear and opted for low budget alternatives, they may say "you are crazy". But that is exactly what i did. Mckenna and her mom were very gracious with my experiments and they ended up working really good. A majority of this video was shot on the Flip Cam Ultra HD which only costs a few hundred dollars. Of course I used many of them, and also had a myriad of other equipment as well as some other professional cameras in the final cut, but never-the-less, the flip cam image is dominant.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Growing Up Guide Pup - Week 53 - Vet Conference

Well here i am talking about our second video we shot while in Vegas. The whole reason for our being in Vegas in the first place was so Amie could attend the WVC conference. We just have learned to adapt our lives to making a series and taking opportunities to train Ricki when then pop up. This episode was probably one of my least favorites that I have made in awhile. 100 percent of the footage was shot with a flip cam, and most of the footage was indoors providing a pretty unprofessional result. The camera does everything automatically including exposure control and it's low light capabilities are ok at best.

Despite my own reservations this episode seems to be received well. It just goes to show that story takes precedence over everything else. Amie and I have learned a lot about our audience from this episode, and the value of showing other working teams holds high. Marlis and Gable were a pleasure to have breakfast with, and provided some great insight to their world. A big thanks to them, and to all our fans for your continual support.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Flip Cam Contest

I acquired a ton of equipment on a recent project. I don't need all of this stuff and thought why not give some of it away to my viewers. I like helping aspiring video creators, and low budget filmmakers. This has kinds become my new angle with my videos that come out every week.

If you interested in this contest. Hit me up on youtube with a comment on the video below and don't forget to subscribe.